especially when hoecake was the staple food, and it was because of
his frequent trips to the mill, across the swampy region called
the "Slashes," that Henry was dubbed by the neighbors "The Mill
Boy of the Slashes."

The lad was ambitious, however, and, very early in life, made up
his mind that he would win for himself a more imposing title. He
never dreamed of winning world-wide renown as an orator, or of
exchanging his boyish sobriquet for "The Orator of Ashland." But
he who forms high ideals in youth usually far outstrips his first
ambition, and Henry had "hitched his wagon to a star."

This awkward country boy, who was so bashful, and so lacking in
self-confidence that he hardly dared recite before his class in
the log schoolhouse, DETERMINED TO BECOME AN ORATOR.

Henry Clay, the brilliant lawyer and statesman, the American
Demosthenes who could sway multitudes by his matchless oratory,
once said, "In order to succeed a man must have a purpose fixed,
then let his motto be VICTORY OR DEATH." When Henry Clay, the poor
country boy, son of an unknown Baptist minister, made up his mind
to become an orator, he acted on this principle. No discouragement
or obstacle was allowed to swerve him from his purpose. Since the
death of his father, when the boy was but five years old, he had
carried grist to the mill, chopped wood, followed the plow
barefooted, clerked in a country store,--did everything that a
loving son and brother could do to help win a subsistence for the
family.

In the midst of poverty, hard work, and the most pitilessly